Thoughts About ME: Call for the HHS Competition Advocate to Investigate the IOM Contract

I have sent today to the so-called “Competition Advocate” for HHS a request to investigate what appears to be a dramatic failure of HHS to follow applicable federal law and regulations regarding full and open competition in its award of the $1 million contract to the Institute of Medicine.

This in some respect duplicates my second request to the Office of Inspector General of HHS, but I thought it would put additional pressure on HHS to have another position within the agency looking into deficiencies in the way this contract was awarded. The Competition Advocate is something like an ombudsman responsible for overseeing the Department’s adherence to the full-and-open-competition requirements of federal contracting law and regulations.